thanks again everyone. this is fantastic feedback. glad i stopped by here!
some more feedback and questions:
okay... if i am able to load the sound files into another program and resave them, will dp still recognize and place all of the splices/cuts/pastes/fades, etc. if it can reload them? if not, i'm stuck redo'ing all the audio for this tune, i'm afraid.
if my computer is dying, (and i pray that it is not), wouldn't i also have problems loading other files? this problem right now is not intermittent; i am only having probs with 1 particular tune.
fwiw, my machine is a 1.0 ghz g4... i have the last evolution of the titanium before the aluminums came out. interestingly enough, i did have to replace my hard drive a couple of months ago due to failure. fortunately, i keep backups!
so, 108= out of memory????? in that case, it is POSSIBLE that if i upgrade my ram the problem will go away? i'm not running any other apps when i run DP.
also... i don't have any other plugins other than the DP included ones. the ONLY other plugins available are the ones that appear as if they were installed by garageband. DP appears to include them in its list by default. could THESE be the culprit?
btw, i even tried deleting the audio, analysis, and fades folders in the project... file still would not load.

it's as if the corruption is in the dp song file, itself, and not the audio, but that's just a wild guess.
i guess you could also say that i've done a reinstall... i was running version 5.12 this morning when i started having the problem, and then downloaded and installed 5.13 in hopes that it would solve my problem.
one of my music colleagues lives in my neighborhood and is also running DP. i'm going to try to load on his computer next and see what happens. i'll report back.
i really appreciate all the help so far-